The Japanese WAF market recorded a phenomenal growth rate of 30.0% on a
YoY basis, generating revenue of $35.1 million in 2016.

The on-premise WAF solutions segment (includes stand-alone and
Add-on/Software) remained the key revenue contributor in 2016,
accounting for 68.5% of the overall market share. However, the
cloud-based WAF segment recorded a robust YoY growth of 57.3% during the
same period, which could be attributed to increasing demand from the SMB
sector that was facing an increasing number of sophisticated attacks on
Web applications. The service provider, BFSI, and e-Commerce verticals
were the key revenue contributors in 2016, accounting for a relatively
equal market share of 21.4%, 21.0% and 20.8%, respectively.
Particularly, the service providers were seen to beef up their
infrastructure to include WAF cloud-based services for their customers
that were shifting from the CapEx to the OpEx model.

In addition to the market growth analysis, the study highlights the key
driving forces for the WAF market. Key drivers include the increasing
number of organizations shifting toward the Web front and the rising
Internet penetration rate; the evolved threat landscape that results in
greater concerns over data breaches; stricter requirements for industry
compliances, and local regulations that drive organizations to invest
more in measures for data protection and to avoid potential liability
issues; and increasing migration from web application into the cloud
observed from organizations.